


Little Bird

by PFDiva



Category: Friends at the Table (Podcast)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Post-Canon, another one that's gonna get hella jossed, i still don't care
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-30
Updated: 2018-01-30
Packaged: 2019-03-11 11:30:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13523337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PFDiva/pseuds/PFDiva
Summary: Fero meets Adelaide again, for the last time.





	Little Bird

**Author's Note:**

> I have finished Autumn of this podcast, so I'm still behind, but I find Adelaide's insistence on calling Fero "little bird" incredibly compelling. Because of who I am as a person. Fucking fight me.

"Little bird."

The voice is unexpected, but not exactly surprising.

"Queenie, hey, how's it hanging?"

Adelaide Triste in her ruined throne room laughs. It's the same laugh it was so many years ago, and she looks the same.

Fero doesn't. He got old. The years have dragged on him, and though he could never forget Nacre, he'd set it aside in his mind. He'd let himself hold onto his conviction that killing the queen of Nacre was the right thing to do, even if it was a monumentally stupid thing. Possibly it looks like it worked out for her?

"Sooo, here's the thing," he drawls, striding over to her throne open-handed and open-faced and just plain open. He's good at open. "I'm pretty sure I DIED and I didn't really BELIEVE Hella when she said you all were here and I REALLY didn't believe that I could never leave Nacre, so this is a kind of WEIRD situation we have happening here, just all around."

He's reached the foot of her throne and she is taller than him, which isn't unexpected, draped in black and red finery that makes her stand out against the stark whiteness of this ruined space. Was this what the throne room of Nacre looked like? Well, obviously not until the Ordennan invasion, but he can see what it should have looked like before. It's been so long.

"You are a citizen of Nacre," Adelaide assures him, amused in that way that women sometimes are with him, before they realize they think he's annoying, because he is, "And you are dead. Are you ready to move on?"

"I definitely got, like, the full retrospective on my life before I got here, so I gotta say that I have lived a /pretty awesome/ life, you know what I'm saying?" She waits, still smiling at him. Her smile is serene. Queenly. What was she called? The Lady of Pearls? Something-something else, he can't really recall and doesn't honestly care. But she's so beautiful. Which really has nothing to do with the question at hand, "But let's just say that I'm NOT ready to kick it just yet, what's that look like?"

She stares off into the middle distance for a moment, considering before looking at him again, "You must take the spirit of Nacre with you to every city and village in Hieron."

That was actually not as challenging as it sounded. Fero's been to TONS of places since the ill-fated visit to Nacre, and Hieron's not THAT big. The problem? People still deserve the right to not be made immortal against their will. And he didn't know what he was doing before.

"Yeah, uhm….how about that still sucks and you're a crazy person…?"

Adelaide laughs and waves her hand in a dismissive gesture over Fero's head. He feels somehow lighter. Like he was carrying a weight he didn't realize he'd been holding onto. The sensation makes him look over his shoulder, though there is nothing to be seen. He turns in a confused circle, wondering what exactly she's done to him and when he faces Adelaide again, he realizes that there's nothing sore. All the aches and pains he'd ignored for the last decade or so have gone.

"I'm really full dead, aren't I?" The sparkle in her eyes is answer enough. "And you're stuck with ME for eternity?"

"Perhaps not eternity. You could be reborn. Or move into the afterlife." But the sparkle drains from her eyes, her smile going sad around the edges and he realizes that he is the first person she's seen in a very long time. Bad luck for her twice over.

He folds his arms and makes a thoughtful noise, "Yeah, but do I have to decide NOW? I just died, that's really exhausting on a guy and I haven't seen you in so long I forgot you're good looking."

She chuckles, "No, little bird. You needn't make your choice now."

He turns into a panther and flaps up onto the arm of her throne. She runs her fingers through his feathers and scratches the underside of his chin. Eternity's a long time. He'll decide where to go later.


End file.
